judge

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

transitive v. To form an opinion or estimation of after careful consideration: judge heights; judging character.

transitive v. Law To hear and decide on in a court of law; try: judge a case.

transitive v. Obsolete To pass sentence on; condemn.

transitive v. To act as one appointed to decide the winners of: judge an essay contest.

transitive v. To determine or declare after consideration or deliberation.

transitive v. Informal To have as an opinion or assumption; suppose: I judge you're right.

transitive v. Bible To govern; rule. Used of an ancient Israelite leader.

intransitive v. To form an opinion or evaluation.

intransitive v. To act or decide as a judge.

n. One who judges, especially:

n. One who makes estimates as to worth, quality, or fitness: a good judge of used cars; a poor judge of character.

n. Law A public official who hears and decides cases brought before a court of law.

n. Law A bankruptcy referee.

n. One appointed to decide the winners of a contest or competition.

n. Bible A leader of the Israelites during a period of about 400 years between the death of Joshua and the accession of Saul.

n. Bible See Table at Bible.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. A public official whose duty it is to administer the law, especially by presiding over trials and rendering judgments; a justice.

n. A person who decides the fate of someone or something that has been called into question.

n. A person officiating at a sports or similar event.

n. A person whose opinion on a subject is respected.

v. To sit in judgment on; to pass sentence on.

v. To sit in judgment, to act as judge.

v. To form an opinion on.

v. To arbitrate; to pass opinion on something, especially to settle a dispute etc.

v. To have as an opinion; to consider, suppose.

v. To form an opinion; to infer.

v. To criticize or label another person or thing.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. A public officer who is invested with authority to hear and determine litigated causes, and to administer justice between parties in courts held for that purpose.

n. One who has skill, knowledge, or experience, sufficient to decide on the merits of a question, or on the quality or value of anything; one who discerns properties or relations with skill and readiness; a connoisseur; an expert; a critic.

n. A person appointed to decide in a trial of skill, speed, etc., between two or more parties; an umpire.

n. One of the supreme magistrates, with both civil and military powers, who governed Israel for more than four hundred years.

n. The title of the seventh book of the Old Testament; the Book of Judges.

intransitive v. To hear and determine, as in causes on trial; to decide as a judge; to give judgment; to pass sentence.

intransitive v. To assume the right to pass judgment on another; to sit in judgment or commendation; to criticise or pass adverse judgment upon others. See Judge, v. t., 3.

intransitive v. To compare facts or ideas, and perceive their relations and attributes, and thus distinguish truth from falsehood; to determine; to discern; to distinguish; to form an opinion about.

transitive v. To hear and determine by authority, as a case before a court, or a controversy between two parties.

transitive v. To examine and pass sentence on; to try; to doom.

transitive v. To arrogate judicial authority over; to sit in judgment upon; to be censorious toward.

transitive v. To determine upon or deliberation; to esteem; to think; to reckon.

transitive v. To exercise the functions of a magistrate over; to govern.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

To act as a judge; pronounce upon the merits of a cause or controversy; pass judgment.

To form a judgment or mental assertion; say to one's self that so and so is or is not true; make up one's mind about the truth of a matter.

To make a critical determination; decide as to what is true or false, good or bad, genuine or spurious, etc.; estimate the value or magnitude of anything.

To hear and determine authoritatively, as a cause or controversy; examine into and decide upon.

To try at the bar of justice; pass judgment upon.

To pass sentence upon; adjudge; sentence; condemn.

To form a judgment or opinion of or upon; decide upon critically; estimate.

To hold as an opinion; esteem; consider.

If men judge that learning should be referred to action, they judge well.

Synonyms To account, hold, believe, deem, consider, regard.

To govern or regulate by right of authority, as the judges of Israel who held office between Joshua and the kings.

n. A public officer invested with authority to hear and determine causes, civil or criminal, and to administer justice between parties in courts held for the purpose; a public officer appointed to exercise the judicial power; a justice; a magistrate.

n. [capitalized] A title of God as supreme arbiter of all things.

n. In a more general sense, any one intrusted with authority to arbitrate on the rights of others: as, no man ought to be a, judge in his own cause.

n. A person appointed to decide in any competition or contest; an authorized arbiter: as, to make one a, judge in a dispute; the, judges of a competitive exhibition.

n. A person skilled in determining the true nature or quality of anything; one qualified or able to discriminate, as between good and bad, right and wrong, genuine and spurious, etc.; a connoisseur; an expert: as, a judge of wines or of paintings; a judge of character or of qualifications.

n. In Jewish hist., an administrative officer who stood at the head of the Hebrew state in the intermediate period between the time of Moses and Joshua and that of the kings.

n. [capitalized] plural The seventh book of the Bible, properly the “Book of Judges” (Liber Judicum, Vulgate).

n. In coal-mining, the measuring-rod with which the depth of a holing or jad is ascertained.

n. The term has sometimes been employed to designate a special judge, or one of a class of special judges, added to a court for the purpose of holding trials, but without being a member of a court in banc.

n. A chief judge.

n.Synonyms and Judge, Umpire, Referee, Arbitrator; justice, arbiter. Judge is a technical word for a legal officer with duties clearly defined: as, a judge of probate; or a general word for a person empowered to arbitrate or award: as, to act as judge at contests, an exhibition of paintings, a competitive examination, etc. Umpire is a name applied to the person selected to decide all disputed points connected with a public contest: as, the umpire in a game of base-ball. Referee is somewhat more loosely used. In legal usage referee means one to whom a pending cause or some branch of it is referred, with the sanction of the court, to act in place of the judge, or in aid of his determination, the result being a decision of the court; while an arbitrator is one to whom a question is referred simply by agreement of the parties, without sanction of the court. The reference of a pending cause to an arbitrator takes it out of court, and precludes further proceedings in court. In a boxing-match, boat-race, foot-ball game, etc., the referee is the same as an umpire. Sometimes an umpire is legally appointed to decide where arbitrators disagree. Thus all these words may have technical senses when used as legal terms.

Justice Richardson, and passed just over the head of the judge, who happened to be sitting at ease and lolling on his elbow, the learned man smiled, and observed to those who congratulated him on his escape, "You see now, if I had been an _upright judge_ I had been slaine."

The difference in qualifications between this fruitcake and Judge Sotomayor illustrate the problems in the Republican party. the judge is a seriously educated and experienced professional, one is a beauty contestant, and not even a real pretty one.